Scania NZ’s senior product engineer e-mobility, Alfons Reitsma,

touched on the latest developments in Scania’s decarbonisation journey.

“Our purpose is to drive the shift towards a more sustainable society and in our transport systems,” Reitsma says.

“We work on trying to do the right thing. How can we improve the energy efficiency of our products for our customers? How do we deal with renewable fuels in the electrification journey? All while focusing on smart and safe transport.

“Every day, we get calls from our clients who ask us to give more sustainable products.”

Reitsma says good policy is essential for truck manufacturers when planning the future, regardless of who is in government.

“I thought the government [transport announcement] was a little bit light on its ambition frankly,” he says.

“Of course, we’d like an ambitious government to have good policy to underpin set targets. It’s so much easier for us when we know there are set targets from a governmental policy, because we only make vehicles that comply with the legislation.

“It’s a huge challenge now globally. How many diesel engines should we make?

How many gas engines should we make? How many electric trucks should we make? How many hydrogen trucks will we have to make, et cetera.

“That planning comes from good policy because good policy will indicate to us what we should create.

“But, regardless of governments and policies that are perhaps not driving the shift as quickly as we would like, we are committed to driving this change.”

Reitsma says Scania NZ Is dedicated to instigating the change towards decarbonisation by following science-based targets. “This includes targets that are in line with what is necessary to meet the goals of the Paris Accord,” he says.

“We are committed to a 50% CO₂ reduction from our operations by 2025, and a 20% CO2 reduction from our products by 2025. By 2030, we have to have a 50% reduction of our CO2 footprint from our products, and we have to have a 50% reduction every decade thereafter.

“The question is, how we do that? There’s a lot of investment going on behind the

scenes, a tremendous amount. And that is also to ensure that we can hit that target under the Paris Accord.

“Everybody who contributes to this change is a positive step in the right direction. We are definitely not here to polarise the industry between one solution or the other,” Reitsma says.

“Many transitional steps to decarbonisation have unfortunately been taken out of the loop because of New Zealand market conditions. And that’s a shame, because all those products were developed – gas engines, ethanol engines, ethanol engines based on the ignition. They could have all contributed today to the society we live in here in New Zealand.”